~ the illustrated garden studio blog

New art, new seeds, new idea, new dates

New art! I’m painting angels. Lots of them, in advance of a string of art festivals beginning with Arts Alive! in downtown Mobile next weekend. Also painting lighthearted botanical, garden and nature themes. It’s a pleasant task. This one — about half completed at this stage — is opaque watercolor on bristol board, and will make her debut as a print and as notecards.

New seeds! A wonderful shipment of garden goodies has arrived from the friendly organic farmers at Sustainable Seed Company. Heirloom green beans, melons, two types of old-time squash, an interesting book on grain growing and a vacuum sealer (for canning). Yay! Must resist the powerful urge to stop painting and go work in the garden:

A new idea! (Well, new to me, at least.) It’s being used to grow vegetable plants behind a restaurant at Windmill Market, across the bay in Fairhope. Each seedling grows in a hollowed-out space atop a bale of hay. I’d like to try this approach with summer squash, to see if it would outwit the nasty squash vine borers that plague organic growers here in the semi-tropical south:

I also liked the restaurant’s picturesque system for capturing greywater to use on the plants. All this is going on in an alley space alongside the building, and Windmill Market had a couple of nice, big compost bins going nearby.

New dates! My calendar of shows, classes and workshops is steadily filling up. Thank you to everyone who has emailed or commented about the artwork. I love hearing from you.